another
by irite
Summary: Five ways in which Loki's (short) life goes incredibly wrong.


**All my thanks to my amazing beta, dysprositos, for beta magic.**

**WARNINGS: infanticide, major character death, death in general.**

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1. In one universe, the story goes like this.

Laufey exposes his runt on the eve of battle with the Aesir, and the next day, Odin, gore on his face from his newly ruined eye, finds it.

He takes the babe home and raises him as his son.

The lonely child turns into a bitter young man, and Loki cannot bear to remain in Thor's shadow. Disguised, he sneaks out of Asgard, makes a deal with the Jotunn, lets them in to disrupt his 'brother's' coronation.

Goes with Thor to the realm of the Frost Giants, helps him almost start a war. Watches Thor be banished for his pains, learns the truth of his heritage.

Becomes king of Asgard, but even that is not good enough; there is no glittering gold coronation and his subjects speak to him with the barest hint of respect in their voices.

Thor figures everything out, refuses to stay dead, and makes a triumphant return. He destroys Loki's plans as he destroy the Bifrost. Loki falls, anguished, into an abyss.

He hits bottom and is remade, reforged into a weapon, wielded.

Clint Barton says "Doors open from both sides," and Loki proves him right, makes the man his own. Tries to make Earth his own, too, but it is defended, and Thor is Loki's eternal foil, the opposite side of his coin.

Loki is defeated and taken back to Asgard in chains. He has no home, no hope, nothing.

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2. In a second universe, the story goes like this.

Laufey looks at the runt he is presented with, sees its size, knows the dangers it will face in a world of warriors at seemingly endless war with Asgard.

He brings the blunt end of his staff down on the infant's head.

It dies instantly.

In Laufey's eyes, that is a mercy.

Odin loses an eye on the battlefield and Laufey must give up the Casket of Ancient Winters, but a truce is made, and Odin returns home to his wife and small son.

Thor grows up arrogant, a prince. Frigga attempts to temper her son's brash spirit, but with little success. He takes no one's counsel but his own.

He is coronated young, with no interruptions, and Odin wants to believe that he is leaving his realm in good hands, but he cannot.

His ominous prediction comes true when Thor recklessly sends Asgard to war, and dies for it.

Odin resumes the throne and looks for an answer to the question of his next heir. Midgard's troubles go unnoticed in the face of his own problems.

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3. In a third universe, the story goes like this.

Laufey sees the runt and condemns it to die on the side of the battlefield.

Odin, nursing his great wound, spots the infant and stands over it for a long minute, considering.

But he is attempting to forge a truce, and secreting away one of the Jotunn's young will mean he goes to the negotiations with a lie in his heart. That does not feel right.

Besides, who is he to interfere in their affairs? There is likely a good reason for the presence of this child here, where it is so clearly meant to perish, and the method is not unknown to him; Asgard had exposed a fair share of its unwanted children in the days of old.

He cannot judge, and so he moves on, leaving the babe where it lies.

It dies alone.

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4. In a fourth universe, the story goes like this.

Odin finds the Jotunn infant and takes it home. Loki is raised alongside Thor, the pair growing up under the dark cloud of Odin's unspoken but no less present preference for Thor. Loki twists, becomes bitter and revenge-seeking.

He invites the Jotunn to his brother's coronation, orchestrates Thor's banishment, and takes the throne.

Thor refuses to stay where he has been put and returns to ruin Loki's plans. Dangling from the Bifrost, Loki lets go, faced with a truth he will never be able to shake.

He is _not_ good enough. He never will be.

So he falls. There is no rescue, no escape.

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5. And in a fifth universe, the story goes like this.

Laufey is presented with the runt, and he considers it. Considers the need of every warrior, no matter their size, for despite the rumors of truce with Asgard, the Aesir and Jotunn are mortal enemies and peace will not last forever.

So, impatiently, he sends the child to the nursery. He finds that he cannot kill his beloved wife's last creation.

Not knowingly, anyway.

The child is named Loptr, and he grows more slowly than his peers, mocked mercilessly for his stunted size. The only reason he is not regularly beaten is that he manifests a magical ability stronger than the ice magic inherent in their race at a young age and can defend himself from attack.

Loptr grows up acerbic, twisted, hearing tales of the animosity between his race and the Aesir.

Desperate to prove himself, he voraciously devours tales of the Bifrost controlled by the Aesir and any knowledge of magic that he can find, until one day, having crafted himself a fine illusion of Aesir skin, he sneaks into Asgard.

He has prepared a distraction for the intimidating defender of the bridge, and once it is loose, Loptr steals the guard's sword and slips inside the golden chamber.

He inserts the sword and points the sphere at Asgard, initiating the process of his enemy's destruction.

Standing defensively at the door to protect what he has wrought, Loptr sees a group of five young warriors coming to protect their realm.

He strikes down the first two, a slight blond man and a grim dark man, from a distance, and hurls a dagger into the gut of the oversized third man.

It takes most of his concentration to create a double to distract the female, though she slices through it within seconds and then advances on him with the fifth member of their party, a hammer-wielding blond.

He challenges Loptr, but is hesitant to attack. Loptr remembers the false skin he is wearing and releases the illusion, grasping the woman firmly by the throat with one hand and tossing her aside as he conjures an ice staff to keep the great hammer at bay.

She falls to her knees, gravely injured, frostbite creeping over her skin, and behind her, Asgard ignites.

Loptr's opponent howls and throws his hammer aside to hurl himself at Loptr. They grapple, and the bridge begins to shake under their feet.

Loptr gives a great shove and sends his opponent over the side of the bridge and turns around, victorious, only to be met with a sword through his chest, courtesy of the injured woman.

It is her last act, and Loptr sits heavily, gasping for breath as she collapses beside him.

For all his piecemeal magical knowledge, he knows no healing spells, nothing to stave off his end.

It takes all his effort to send a message to his father telling of his deeds before he too slumps to the side.

In front of Loptr's sightless eyes, Asgard burns.

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**Loptr is another name for Loki, and I figured that his Jotunn name would be different from his Aesir one.**

**Reviews are always welcome.**


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